The Chargers are getting better. Sure, they went and got themselves beat in OT at Indianapolis, so you may think I've finally lost it, that my vacation vacated my brain for good.

But they're improving. They really are. It's noticeable.

They're good. Everybody knows that now. Maybe they're not the best team in the NFL, although that title won't be decided for more than a month. But they can play with any of them, play with them anytime, play their music in a loud, foreign hall with their own instruments.

They proved that in the Colts' corral, on turf, against Peyton Manning and all the king's horses. Most of the day, the Chargers were faster, stronger, bolder and smarter. They were so good for so long, in fact, it was hard for me to believe, and it wasn't as if they hadn't been playing well going in.

I know this is 10 years after, with déjà vu being gargled at every water cooler and the Bolts bandwagon is rolling as it did in 1994. But if that team could go to the Super Bowl before its time, I see no reason why this version can't.

A long shot? Maybe. But surely not that long. There is no truly great team. The 1994 49ers are not out there.

Are the Steelers and Patriots that much better than the Chargers? The Colts are among The League's elite, and they aren't really, truly, better than San Diego. Surely, the Colts can beat Pittsburgh and New England.

I am now convinced, after that performance in Indiana that the Chargers are safely among the five best teams in football. They are not going to be fun to play. There is something about them.

"We can be a serious opponent for anybody," head coach Marty Schottenheimer was saying during yesterday's postmortem.

In Indianapolis, the Chargers played with great intensity, without fear, and with guile the Colts could not match. They had Manning flustered to all hell as he kept in pursuit of the single-season record for touchdown passes he wouldn't have set had the old rules been in place.

They got to him. They got into his big dome. He threw an interception in the red zone. He fumbled twice. But he's a great player, and great players are known to eventually make plays, and when a terrific quarterback remains upright, his side never is out of it.

Given the opportunity, it was Manning who won the game, but San Diego gave it away through shoddy kickoff coverage. There also was help from an official who called a phantom third-quarter pass-interference penalty on cornerback Quentin Jammer that would have resulted in an interception halting the Colts' first touchdown drive.

A crucial call. "That wasn't pass interference," Schottenheimer said after rolling the tape.

Anyway, you see the Chargers blew a 15-point fourth-quarter lead, so it was the defense's fault. It wasn't. Sooner or later, the Colts were going to score.

"You know the ball is going to be moved," Schottenheimer said of the Colts. "One touchdown in six penetrations inside our 20 . . . that speaks to the resolve and character of this football team."

When you come down to it, the Colts scored 24 points on San Diego's defense in 62 minutes and 47 seconds of play. Ten Indy points were the result of long kickoff returns by unheralded return man Dominic Rhodes – one an 88-yarder for a score and a 60-yarder that set up a field goal.

This is very similar to what the defense did at Kansas City. The Chargers will gladly take going into these places and holding great offensive teams to 24 points. Special teams got them in K.C., and they escaped. There was no escaping in Indy.

Football is and always will be a game of real estate, and no coach I can think of values property more than Schottenheimer. He knows if his team is careful with the ball – there wasn't a turnover in Indy until the very end – and field position can be dictated, he can win. That's how he's been winning this year, how he's been winning all his life.

This is how he lost in Indiana.

There is nothing more demoralizing in football than scoring a touchdown and then having the kickoff returned for a score. Schottenheimer thought he had the problem licked after the Kansas City fiasco. He doesn't. Not close. Rhodes isn't Dante Hall. He averaged beneath 22 yards per return before Sunday.

The kicking game is beyond important, so this has to be very worrisome.

"We obviously have to get it rectified," Schottenheimer said. "We got better and then it jumped up and got us. It can be fixed."

It can be, but late December is not a good time to be fixing special teams. The Chargers can move in these playoffs, but they're moving back home if their special teams hand out any more Rhodes scholarships.

Still, this team, although very young, as the 1994 Chargers were, also has veteran leadership on both sides of the ball. The violets in this locker room are not of the shrinking variety.

"If you mess up, you're going to have guys in your ear," said linebacker Steve Foley, who had a huge game Sunday. "And I'm one of 'em."